I focus almost exclusively on PvP, whether solo, small gang, or large bloc warfare. In the past, I've been a miner, mission runner, and faction warfare jockey. I'm particularly interested in helping high-sec players get into 0.0 combat.

Friday, June 5, 2015

Eve 101: How to Join a Corporation

Joining a player corporation in Eve is the best way to deepen your
engagement with the game and become a long-term player. It gives you access to a community of
players, learning opportunities, and forms of content unavailable to the solo
player. When you join a player
corporation, you gain access to another source of content.

But joining a corporation isn’t as easy as everyone makes it out to
be. Joining isn’t automatic, and usually
involves a rigorous interview and consideration process. Eve corporations aren’t like guilds in
WoW. Being part of an Eve corporation
put you in a position to do serious damage to that corporation if you choose
to, and Eve’s sandbox environment means corporations have no recourse to rogue
members. Every major corporation has had
its share of spies, awoxers, thieves, and traitors over time, and has adapted
to weed out those undesirables from the recruitment process.

For any alliance that owns assets in space or provides discounted or
free ships, fittings, or contracts, it’s better to pass on a candidate than let
in a spy. In fact, it’s better to pass
on three candidates than let one spy in.
That said, honest, genuine interest shines through.

How You Appear

The first step is to take an honest look at yourself. Based on your activity, what would you look
like to a potential recruiter?
Recruiters will start by opening up your character information screen to
see your past corporations. Contrary to
opinion, a long corp history isn’t as critical as the last couple of
corporations you’ve been in. No
recruiter will look at NPC corporations when judging how often you switch
around, only player corporations. Leaving
and rejoining the same corporation isn’t a problem either (people take breaks in
Eve; the fact that your corp accepted you back reflects well on you). No decent corporation is going to have a
problem with this.

Instead, they’ll look at patterns in focus. Did you switch between 10 mission-running
corporations, and remained with them for only a week at a time? That could suggest that you went on a
scamming binge. Did you recently dabble
in mission running, low-sec, null-sec, WH, and mining corps for a couple
weeks? That could convey that you don’t
really know what you want. Do you have
any infamous corporations in your history?
The presence of certain big players in your history will make recruiters
skeptical of your intentions and loyalties.

Recruiters will also look at your killboard to get a sense of what
you’ve done. Kills and losses can tell a
lot about a person. Do your fits match
what you’ve done? Do they show any
improvement as your skills improve? What
you fit and fly can tell a lot about your skill points, as well as your
approach to the game. Both of these are
critical pieces of info for a recruiter.

One thing decent PvP corporations will NOT be looking at is your
kill/death ratio. The “how” and “why” of
what’s on your killboard is more important than the “what”. Your killboard should be consistent with what
you’re looking for or what you’ve done (if you’re changing what you’re looking
for); both in terms of kills/losses and the way you approach the game. If you’re joining a PvP corp, decent ones
will be more interested in seeing your fitting philosophy, how large of gangs
you fight in, and what sorts of ships you tend to fly.

Incidentally, recruiters will also check your killboard for any
instances of awoxing – killing your own corporation mates – particularly if
they align with changes in your corp history.
That combination would get you blacklisted by the
corporation/alliance/coalition as untrustworthy.

But most of you won’t have any issues there. So let’s move on to the next, most important
step.

What do YOU want from a corporation?

Joining a corporation isn’t just about you being useful to them. Just like a job interview, you need to choose
one that’s a good fit for your playstyle and desires. And before you can do that, you need to
honestly assess what it is you want to spend your time doing. No one can answer this for you.

Every corporation is different.
It’s important to drill down to more than, “I want to
PvP/mine/mission/build.” I see the
following on a lot of corporations’ descriptions:

These corporations want to try to appeal to as many people, but one of
those playstyles is going to win out over everything else, or the corporation
isn’t going to provide you with what you’re looking for. If all you want to do is cooperatively
mission, for instance, every player that chooses to mine or PvP is,
effectively, meaningless to you. Sure,
they can be great people to talk to, but you’ll end up with that many fewer
people to engage in your preferred activity.

Side note: a corporation cannot dabble in PvP and still be
effective. If your corp goes on a weekly
PvP roam as a change-up from their heavy focus on industry and mining, that
roam is either going to end in a welp or result in heavily one-sided battles. Just recognize what you’re getting in to. That’s not to say that PvP corps are insensitive
to players needing to make isk, of course, but PvPing well requires a primary
focus; dabbling results in lossmails and the exodus of your best talent to
other corps, which only exacerbates the issue.
So, if you see a corp that focuses on mining, ratting, and PvP,
effectively this is a mining and ratting corp that likes to dabble.

Another factor to consider is time zone. When do you reasonably expect to play? A corp member that you never see is not a
corp member that has value to you. When
I was in the heavily EUTZ Imperial Legion, I was laid off from worm, and was
able to play during the day. But when I
went back to work, I quickly realized I never saw the people I was playing with
anymore. Time zone is critical to
happiness in a corp.

Likewise, culture is a big issue.
Are you looking for a competitive environment or a community? Do you have interested in playing other games
with the same people, or are you all about the space? Some folks are looking for a low tax rate and
a nice group of mates to talk to while they do their own thing. That’s
great! Don’t join PL, NC., or Goonswarm,
then.

How big of a group do you want to be part of? Do you want to rise up the ranks and become a
meaningful part of a group (small corp)?
Do you want to have lots of people to play with, but still small enough
that everyone can fit in a common comms channel 24/7 (medium corp)? Or do you want to be part of a large group
with lots of things happening, and are okay with not talking to the same people
day in-and-out (large corp like Goonswarm, RvB, or Eve Uni)?

And finally, there are some differences between corps that are by
themselves and ones in an alliance.
Having alliance mates around is helpful in some situations, but those
other corps in your alliance can lead to some baggage that can hamper your
ability to play your own game. The
extent of alliance culture is worth considering, as well. Do corps intermingle on comms and in various
activities (a space empire), or do corps pretty much stick to themselves (a
space confederation)? The differences in
culture can have a huge difference, and you need to keep in mind what you’re
looking for.

Starting Looking

So, let’s say you really understand what it is you want to do, and are
ready to start looking. There are two
ways to start looking. The first is
preferred, and is to look at corps you’ve had interactions with in the past, or
which have pilots you’ve had positive experiences with. Particularly when joining PvP corps, the best
ones to consider at the ones you’ve had a hard time fighting against in the
past. If you’ve trolled FW space and are
looking to get into an actual FW corp, consider the corps you fought before.

You have to be careful here, though.
Generally, your goal should be to approach corps that are stronger than
you, and with whom you’ve had balanced interactions. Even if you’ve lost fights repeatedly to a
corp, if you’ve built up a track record of fighting honorably (or very
skillfully being dishonorable, with some corps!), you’ll have some positive
credibility with them. And that will
reflect well on your chances.
Alternatively, if you always fit warp core stabs, always have a Falcon
alt ready to decloak as you fight them, or blob them constantly, expect a swift
rejection and look elsewhere.

When I was looking to try out wormhole space, I reached out to
Repercussus (who I was not a part of at the time), and they put me in contact
with Sky Fighters, a group they had some interactions with in the past. Mentioning the connection was a great way to
break the ice with them, and got me in the door of a type of corp that is
generally a bit leery about new blood (POS mechanics, theft, and all).

But if you don’t have an “in”, check out the recruitment thread on the
Eve-O forums and the in-game recruitment tool.
Pay very close attention to the times of day that people post in the
Eve-O threads, and the dirty tricks people play in the recruitment thread. Watch for “all things to all people”
sentiments and time zone targeting that covers the entire day. These are huge red flags.

Be sure to box your weight: look to join corps that are a bridge of
where you are now and where you want to be.
If you’ve never been a part of a player corp before, don’t set your
sights on the “end game” corporations.
If you haven’t PvPed before, for instance, consider joining a smaller,
more focused corp instead of Snuff Box, Rooks and Kings, and Origin. You may
struggle to keep up with the corps that are filled with seasoned and
well-skilled PvPers. Don’t plan to
immediately jump from mission running to Lazerhawks. The culture may be a bit of a shock to you,
and you’ll have a tremendous amount of catching up to do just to speak the
jargon and get familiar with the experience of being in a player corp.

This is especially true when you want to change your focus. If you want to move from mining to piracy,
for instance, any competent, tightly run corp is going to want to have some
evidence that you have at least the potential to hold your own in a fight. That means seeing some evidence of your
flying. You don’t need to be perfect,
just show the ability and willingness to learn.
But that generally means jumping into the activity before you become a
member of that corp. With PvP, that’s
especially true, as it’s the most demanding of disciplines (with the possible
exception of industry and demonstrating your knowledge of charts, graphs, and
process planning). So, this usually
means first joining a teaching or entry corp in your discipline so you can gain
some experience. Once you have that
experience, though, shoot for the stars!

When you have a short list of candidates, do your research. Review their corp killboard to get a sense of
when they fly, how large of a fleet they fly, what their focus is, and where
they spend their time. Check Dotlan to
see how large their corp is and how it has fluctuated. Check names in their public channel and see
how long they’ve been members of the corp.
Check how often they have kills (if PvP), if you see any trends in their
lossmails (ex. they’re constantly at war with Marmite), and how often they post
in their recruitment thread. Search
their corp name, in quotes, for any scams, scandals, or examples of ill
faith.

Do they match what you want? If
so, join their recruitment channel, look them up on Dotlan, Google the corp
name and search the Eve-O forums, check their killboard(s), and read through
the MOTD (message of the day in their recruitment channel) and all links within
the MOTD.

The Initial Conversation

I can’t stress this enough, so I’m putting it at the top of this
section, too. READ THE MOTD AND ALL THE
LINKS. Nothing annoys recruiters more
than having to state the same thing as is written in the MOTD. Having to do so is a failure on the part of
the applicant either to follow basic instructions or to phrase questions
appropriately.

For instance, the question, “What are you looking for in a pilot?” is
generally answered in the MOTD or in resources access via external links linked
in the MOTD. A better question is, “Your
recruitment link says you are a PvP corporation. What are the most valuable traits you look
for in new pilots?” Don’t even ask, “Do
you do solo, small-gang, or large fleet PvP?”, as this information should be
clear from their killboard (you reviewed that, right?). If you’re looking for a mission running corp,
check the MOTD and recruitment links first to see if they identify what kinds
of missions they run, whether they run solo or in a group, and what standings
requirements they have. If they’re a
ratting corp, drill deeper into the kinds of ratting, where they do it, and
rules… anything that would demonstrate you’re aware of what they’ve written.

Be entirely honest about yourself.
If you don’t have much experience doing something, but want to, tell
them that. Share the reasons you’re
interested in it, what made you decide this was something you wanted to
pursue. Talk about experiences in your
past.

Keep in mind, while you’re only talking to a handful of corps, recruiters
are constantly talking to prospective members.
And they’re doing it while they’re doing their primary activity
too. That might mean hunting down a
target while they’re talking with you, or joining a fleet. Be direct in your questions, be open with
your reasons for looking, and that will come through.

Recruiters are looking to quickly understand what it is you’re looking
for so they can judge if they think you’re a good fit. Recruiters WANT to recruit the right
candidates, and have every incentive for accepting and helping those players
they feel would be a good fit. And if
they don’t deem you a good fit, then it’s best to know that BEFORE you join and
move all your stuff, isn’t it? Honesty
and openness is always the right move.

The key thing to remember at this stage is that you’re trying to gauge
them just as much as they’re feeling you out.
It’s absolutely critical that you ask deep questions to understand what
it will be like on a daily basis talking to these people. If the recruiters get angry or frustrated
while you’re asking good, insightful questions, maybe that corp isn’t for
you. Recruiters are there to help you…

The API

…but, they’re also there to protect the corp from infiltration.

Inevitably, any group that takes security and corp integrity seriously will
want an API. These are the corps you
want to be a part of. Submitting a full API
key is not negotiable for them. You must
have one ready. I recommend setting one
up specifically for applications, which you can pull at any time. It’s worth noting that the API provides
visibility only; it doesn’t give anyone control over you, your account, or
anything in it.

Why is a full API key so critical?
It can give visibility into everything, but particularly locations of
assets, former Eve mails, and transaction history. The asset breakdown can give recruiters as
sense of what you can fly and how you operate.
By knowing what you have and regularly fly, they can see what your
objectives might be. In particular, they
can use this information to judge how self-sufficient you’ll be. This can have a huge effect on whether or not
you’ll be able to bring yourself up to speed and begin contributing.

Recruiters, though, are also looking through your eve mail and
transaction history, looking for red flags.
If you submit an API key for one account, but regularly transfer assets
to a character that isn’t on that account, it will signify that you have an
alt. You’ll either have to submit an API
for that account as well, or be deemed a spy.
They’ll look deeply at any suspicious bumps in isk, any repetitive small
deposits, or anything that would indicate that you’re being funded by a
character outside of the account. They
will go through eve mails to identify whether you have regular associations with
any enemies or associates of enemies. At
this stage, they won’t be scrubbing your API for intel, but trying to judge
whether your character records confirm what you’re telling them.

By giving them an API that you can pull at any time (and which isn’t
tied to your current corp, Eve-kill, EFT, Evemon, Pyfa, etc.), you maintain
control over how long they can review this information. But everything you do is generally publicly
available. In Repercussus, for instance,
leadership can view every asset that every player has through the full API, and
players can view this info on themselves on the RP web hub (I say web hub
because it extends well beyond just forums… We love you, Troyd!).

It’s extensive info, and it can be daunting to give that sort of info
out. But, you quickly grow used to it,
particularly when you consider some of the tools at your disposal when you do. And when you consider that eventually you’ll
gain access to corp hangers and be given increasing responsibility, it’s only
fair to expect to have to give something back.
They are trusting you not to shoot your own alliance mates, after
all. And the API key will help them
track down any thefts to either recover the goods or quickly identify and kick
the perpetrators. And that benefits all
those members who remain by mitigating the risk.

“Your application is accepted!”

Congratulations. You’ve found a
corp in your TZ engaging in activities you really want to participate in, and
which you feel will have a culture you’re interested in being a part of. The recruiter vetted your API and both of you
gave answers that satisfying the other, and everything was in order.

Now what?

Most corporations have a staging area, an area of space that they call
home. In many cases, this is a specific
station in a specific system. Sometimes,
a corp can have multiple stating areas (RP has a low-sec home, an industry
home, a null-sec alliance home, and a deployment zone, for instance). And you’ll be expected to make your way there
as soon as is possible.

Expect it to take several weeks to move all of your assets to your
corporation’s new staging area. Caravanning
everything across new Eden is not an easy task, and was made harder by the introduction
of jump fatigue. Look to make progress,
not accomplish it all at once.

I recommend first sitting down and identifying what you want,
where. This is a good time to bundle up
and Jita-sell some of your assets you don’t use anymore. Keep what you think you’ll use in your new
life. This could be incredibly complex
step, or a relatively easy one depending on how widely distributed your assets
are.

Don’t be in a hurry, and don’t wait to jump into activities with your
corp until you’re fully moved. Part of
this is to make a good first impression, but the bigger part is to give
yourself some time to try out your new corm before you haul everything across
the map. What if you spend four weeks
moving your stuff only to find the Teamspeak culture incredibly toxic and
stressful?

If you’re joining a PvP corporation, don’t bother bringing PvP ships at
first. Most corps have contracts with
the fits they use, and that will be all you’ll need for the first couple
weeks. If you do want to bring some
ships, bring solo or small-gang PvP ships, which tend to be more “kitchen sink”
in nature. Don’t bother buying
fleet-doctrine ships at first… not until you get a feel for what ships they fly
regularly. In some cases, expensive
doctrines are flown so rarely that you don’t even need to buy them,
particularly if your corp has contracts you can pick up when needed.

Focus on getting all of your permissions sorted out for
Teamspeak/Mumble, Jabber, web services, forums, etc. The best thing you can do the moment you’re
accepted is to start setting those up.
Having them all active and engaging with them can give you a quick sense
of whether you’re a good fit. Spend time
on Teamspeak just listening to your corp mates.
Keep jabber open to get fleet pings.
Read as much as you can in the forums to understand some of the culture
and attitudes among members. All of
these will help you immerse yourself and give you a great sense of whether you
fit. Better to do this now than later. It’ll also let you verify whether the story
you were sold during the recruitment period is true. Even the best-intentioned recruiters are
guilty of seeing their corp as they envision it, not as it really is, and
sometimes that difference can be striking.

And don’t wait. Jump on in. Experience, play, and participate; it’s never
more important than at the beginning.
Congratulations!

“Your application has been
rejected.”

That’s okay, sometimes this happens.
Sometimes, you get your hopes up and start to plan what you’ll do when
you join your new corp, only to be crushed when they reject you. Don’t panic.
No one is rejecting you as a person, only you as a compatible fit with
that particular group of people. There
can be several reasons why this happened.
Your job is to find out what those reasons were. Ask questions of the recruiter and try to
understand the cause.

Maybe they felt you didn’t have enough experience. If that’s the case, try again with another
corp. If you keep hearing the same story,
then consider scaling down to a more “starter” corp where you can gain more
experience to prove to your rejecters that you are serious about your game and
building a resume to reapply later. Recruiters
like to be proven wrong by you showing them your value. If you aren’t accepted into Awesome Null PVP Corp,
try starting with another PvP-focused null-sec alliance and work to prove
yourself.

Maybe you came off as a spy. If
so, the recruiter may not be as willing to explain what flagged you as suspicious…
after all, he doesn’t want to empower spies to correct their mistakes and try
again. But it doesn’t hurt to ask. If there’s a misunderstanding, you might be
able to clear it up or, at worst, apply the lessons to the future. It’s even possible that the recruiter is
being paranoid, which might be an attitude that doesn’t suit you at all. Again, better to know than not know!

And maybe, just maybe, you didn’t do a good enough job of convincing
them that you are eager to join them or that you really are dedicated to their
mission. If you get this response,
consider going back and rethinking what it is you want and whether your
targeting criteria matches the types of corps that you’ve been looking at. We can’t always know what it is we want right
out of the gate; sometimes we need to try and get it wrong to really nail down
what’s important for us.

Just remember, even a rejected application can help you get into a
corporation… just not that corporation.

But when you approach the recruitment process with a respect for the
recruiters’ time, with your homework and research completed, and from a
position of knowing what it is exactly that you want, you’ll get there. If not the first time, then later.

And that’s it. Be thorough in
research, honest in conversation, and specific in your desires, and you’ll get
what you want. Know thyself, and find
thy perfect corporation.

I swear... I got halfway through this and realized... this post is an effective and positive proof of the lead graphic... that joining a corp in EVE is incredibly complex and is an experience that, if they were to follow your guide, would put most if not all noobs totally off the idea of ever attempting to join a corp in EVE.

You talk a lot about the hurdles of needless complexity and how they bar noobs from this or that type of gameplay, especially your preferred (IYHO bestest) gameplay group PvP... and yet do you realize this thesis of yours took 4,093 words?... and you want noobs to see this as reasonable? I can explain entry level ship fitting in fewer words.

Come on Tal... you wanna lower some of the real barriers working against noobs in EVE? Especially those barriers that are keeping them playing solo?... then we need to talk about this one.

I don't want EVE to ever be the first panel... ever. But I think we are paying a very high price because EVE IS just like the second panel... and it aint no joke.

Eve corp recruitment is as complex as it needs to be. Unlike every other amateur MMO, Eve players can do immense damage to an Eve corp, and scamming is actively encouraged. Corporations have to develop an amateur psychological profile on applicants to protect themselves.

This post was borne out of a recruiter comment: “What is this guy asking?” If you’ve never applied to a corp before, it’s really easy not to understand the language and culture of corp recruitment. I remember feeling overwhelmed when I first applied to a corp, wanting to please the recruiter. All the power was in the recruiter’s hands, and as a result, I spent a year in a corp that was a bad fit.

If 4,000 words are too overwhelming for a person, they can always move along to the next post. I suppose I have more faith that anyone who consults blogs and online guides is capable of channeling their focus for long enough to get a complete answer.

Turamarth, I understand your point but Tal isn't telling noobs they need to go out and start the grueling application process with PL tomorrow. New players have a large variety of options to choose from to get experience in Eve without having a Prostrate exam first. RVB is a great example that let's in just about anyone that is smart enough to click on the in game app (no interviews or lengthy out of game apps required). PL's new Pandemic Horde Corp and the original idea behind Brave newbies are also good examples or corps that will let in just about anyone.

Now to get in somewhere more advanced I do think the second panel of the graphic is appropriate as the mechanics of EVE forces you to place assets that have significant real dollar value at risk. It only takes one spy to steal billions of isk worth of assets, drop sov, relay the information of your fleet to the opposition causing a whelp of an expensive fleet, or (as we saw happen last year to PL) get a fleet of super caps to jump into a trap.

An aside to Talvorian, one thing I feel is missing from you great article is the function of vouches. Plenty of higher power corps actually wont let you in without one even if you have 100M SP and are a PVP God. If you do have a really strong vouch within a corp it can help the recruiters overlook some missing skills or a limited PVP history.

I did get what he was aiming for... but when I tried to read this from the eyes and viewpoint of a new player... well, it was daunting. And yes, WE all know about RvB and the new player friendly corps and Alliances... but this write up mentioned EVE Uni and RvB exactly once... and that was very much in passing.

I simply would have take a few hundred words to talk about the New Player friendly corps/Alliance then moved on to drawing blood and immersing potential recruits in butter is all... =]

A well written post but on the matter of vetting recruits, it must be observed that many non-null sec corps have relatively low barriers to entry, for example mine. I get why so many corps have such spy-wary processes but I am very glad I don't have to spend any of my EVE time worrying about such complications. My corp leadership team decided from the get-go to organize our corp and its assets such that we didn't have to implement huge barriers to entry. We all know this is EVE and it may just be a matter of time before someone nails us, but so far our approach has worked fine and is thankfully trivial to manage.

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